Black July 1983: An Epochal Episode In Tamil Freedom Fight

[Harold F. Schiffman]

from TamilCanadian,

Black July 1983: An Epochal Episode In Tamil Freedom Fight

By: Dharakan, Brisbane, Australia

Early Ground Works for Genocide

Ceylon attained its independence from British colonial rule in February
04, 1948. Before the ink could dry on the new constitution, the Ceylon
parliament seeded the genocidal intent, passing the Ceylon Citizenship Act
No.18 of 1948, which deprived a million Tamils of Indian origin their
citizenship. As predicted with remarkable foresight by Thanthai
S.J.V.Celvanayagm in parliament during the debate on Citizenship Bill
(1948), the next blow was dealt to the Tamils when the Sri Lanka Freedom
Party Government of Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranayake enacted Sinhala
Only Act as the Official Language in June 1956. A non-violent Satyragraha
campaign launched by the Tamil Federal party in the northern eastern
provinces, which paralysed civil administration, was ruthlessly broken-up
using the army. The enactment of this Sinhala Only Act, quite contrary to
the hitherto official policy of recognising both Sinhalese and Tamil as
Official languages, made Tamils second-class citizens in their country of
birth overnight. Politically it was a masterstroke by the majority
Sinhalese to deprive education and employment opportunities for the Tamils
in the government and state corporations. The Tamils were humiliated to a
degree that left generations of Tamils to feel rejected and politically
marginalised.

The constitution incorporated in the Sinhala Only Act enthroned Buddhism
as the foremost religion to be fostered by the state. Amendments moved by
the Tamil Federal Party to the draft constitution demanding a federal
constitution and parity of status for Tamil along with Sinhalese were
rejected and defeated by the government. In protest, the Federal Party
withdrew from further deliberations of the Constituent Assembly and
boycotted it. As a mark of protest, Mr.Chelvanayagam resigned his seat in
Parliament and challenged the government to hold an election to test the
acceptability of the new constitution. He simultaneously sought a mandate
from the Tamil people for the restoration of the defunct Tamil state and
won the by-election by a landslide.

In 1970, the government of Mrs.Srimawo Bandaranayke (widow of
Mr.S.W.R.D.Bandaranayake) rubbed salt into wounds by introducing the
notorious "Standardisation" of education. This discriminate policy
required higher marks from Tamil students for University admissions. This
has removed even the last safeguards contained in the Soulbury
constitution. This infamous constitution created the conditions for the
political alienation of the Tamils and a deep wedge between the Sinhala
and Tamil nations.

State Terrorisms and the Great Divide

Sinhalese ruffians broke up the peaceful Satyragraha by the Tamils to
protest against the Sinhala Only language policy at Galle Face Green
overlooking the Parliament in Colombo. This was followed by Island wide
riots in which hundreds of Tamils lost their lives and property worth
millions destroyed. The 1956 riots was the beginning of a series of
racially motivated mass scale racism by Sinhalese covertly encouraged by
successive governments and overtly supported by the security forces. These
Sate Terrorisms sponsored with increased ferocity and venom was repeated
in 1958, 1961, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983 and continuing to this day in 2006.

In July 1957, Mr.S.W.R.D.Bandaranayake signed a pact with Mr. S. J. V.
Chelvanayagam, popularly called the Bandaranayke- Chelvanayagam pact, of
the Tamil Federal Party giving a measure of regional autonomy in spheres
of land, language, education, and employment. However, the pact was torn
apart by Mr.Bandaranayake under pressure from Sinhalese-Buddhist
chauvinists. Foremost among them was no other than Mr.J.R.Jayawardena of
the United National Party who undertook a march to Kandy in protest. A
similar pact signed by Mr.Chelvanayagam with Mr. Dudley Senanayake in 1965
too met the same fate.

In 1975, confronted with the steadily mounting national oppression,
frustrated with the failure of the democratic political struggles, the
Tamil national parties converged into a single movement to fight for
freedom either by peaceful means or by direct action or struggle". In the
elections that followed the TULF received an overwhelming mandate. By
fortuitous circumstances, the TULF also emerged as the official opposition
in Parliament. Mr.Amirthalingam, as the Leader of the Opposition, started
talking about an alterative to the Eelam demand and eventually settled
down for District Development Councils. This experiment failed in the face
of a chauvinistic and intransigent Sinhala government. In any case, the
Tamils felt that the DDC was a sweetener and thus the Tamil leadership
have been taken yet again for a ride by crafty Sinhalese politicians,
especially by Mr.J.R.Jayawardena.


Pouring Oil on Cauldron of Racism


In 1978 yet another Constitution was enacted which tightened the
enslavement of the Tamils further. The TULF like in 1972 walked out of the
constitution assembly and took no part in its deliberations. In 1979 the
Sri Lankan government enacted the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act to
cope with the growing militancy, notably of the Liberation Tigers. This
act and the subsequent crack down by the army of Tamil youths made the
situation worse and confirmed the fears of the Tamils that the Sinhalese
government was hell bent to exterminate them. The racial riots of 1977 and
1979 poured oil on an already burning fire. Most importantly, Sinhalese
introduced the 1978 Constitution, which is still is in force, to
accelerate the genocides against the Tamil humanity.

>>From 1979, because of the Sinhalese army occupation of Jaffna and the
state terrorism let loose on the people, hostility began to grow and the
emotional division between the Sinhalese and the Tamils became more acute.
A group of highly organised young Tamil militants, first calling
themselves the New Tamil Tigers and later The Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam in 1976 emerged to confront the government terrorism by bearing
arms.

Vanguards of the Tamil Liberation


In 1978, J, R. Jayewardene, the first Executive President of the racially
named Sri Lanka, crowned himself with constitutional power and became like
"Emperor Bokassa I". He introduced the 1978 constitution giving all power
to the executive president created under that constitution and then
declared himself as the first executive president. He was determined to
suppress the voices of the freedom calls by Tamils via any means. He was
ruthless to the Tamils people in the North and the East. He suppressed the
Tamil minority violently and used his party members to organize riots
against them  notably in July 1983 and these days of violence is known as
Black July.

The Black July is attributable to some of Jayewardenes notorious speech
and newspaper interviews during his Presidency. By 1983, J.R. was going
through his last term in office. At this stage, his ambition to generate
ethnic cleansing of Tamil humanity became very evident with the Black
July. He declared war for war slogans against the Tamils via an interview
with Ian Ward of the London Daily Telegraph. He said, "The more you put
pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here.
Really, if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy. Two
weeks after J. Rs interview with Ian Ward, a vicious widespread attack was
launched on the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. On 24 July 1983, and
the succeeding weeks, thousands of Tamils were killed. Tamil owned
businesses scientifically extracted and burned. Some were burnt alive.
Over a hundred thousand were rendered homeless. Widespread attacks against
the Tamils in Colombo, Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla and elsewhere
were executed by the Ste sponsored racism and terrorism.

J.R unleashed a new and more ruthless wave of massive violence against
Tamil civilian population who were completely unarmed and innocent of any
crimes. His choice of words and comments were tantamount to the Black July
1983. J. R, as the elected president, did not care for the lives of the
people of Jaffna.'' Tamils regarded his comments not only as a license but
also as an invitation to kill the Tamils.

The Tamil were killed in streets, inside houses, inside buses, cars, and
everywhere and anywhere. Not to mention one of our own family members was
thrown alive into a burning lorry and killed callously. I can still see
the images of fire, death, property loss, refugee camps, and carnage
through the state sponsored terrorism unleashed against the Tamil people.

Sri Lankas Bokassa (J.R) achieved what he intended to achieve  the
genocides of Tamils. However, while he disappeared, his system of
genocidal process carried on by the next clan  Ranasinghe Premadasa and
Chandrika Kumaratunga. Despite of all protests the Constitution of 1978
survived and still remains in use as a tool of genocides against the Tamil
people. In the perception of the Sri Lanka government, the claims of the
Tamil people for the basic right of self-determination had assumed a
dimension that demanded a response - but, strangely, a response that did
not have regard for the lives of the Tamil people or for that matter,
their fundamental human rights.

In July 1983, the Tamil Tigers ambushed a convey of Sinhalese army in the
north and killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers. This attack itself was a
retaliation for a gang rape of a Sri Lankan Tamil doctor by Sinhalese
soldiers. The Sinhalese and their government used this as a trigger to
unleash yet another genocidal act surpassing all the previous ones in its
intensity and destruction of lives and properties. A panicked government
of J.R. at the growing militancy of the Tamils and the cry for separation
sought to defuse the situation by the 6th amendment to the Constitution by
compelling all office holders, including Members of Parliament, to take an
oath of allegiance to the unitary constitution. Unable to comply with this
forced allegiance the TULF boycotted the parliament and later lost their
seats. With the forced political exile and eventual marginalization of the
moderate leadership of the Tamils by the constitutional amendment, the
Tamil militant groups, notably the Tigers gained ascendancy. Today LTTE is
the undisputed, authentic, and sole leaders of the Tamil people in the
vanguard of the Tamil liberation war.

The many battles and the recent low intensity fight after four years of
talking to talk peace, which assumed all the hallmarks of a conventional
war between the Tamil Tigers and Sinhalese army, had established the fact
that there are not only two separate nations but two separate armies as
well. Since Black July 1983, the great divide between the Tamils and
Sinhalese had further accelerated into two nations with two distinguished
races, two armed forces, two cultures, and two traditions.


Count Down to Tamil Freedom


It is 23 years now from the Black July 1983. The Black July was not a
spontaneous upsurge of communal hatred among the Sinhala people. It was a
series of deliberate acts, executed in accordance with a concerted plan,
conceived and organised well in advance by Sinhala government and
politicians during the 25 years preceding the epochal event in the Tamil
history. The genocidal riots in which Tamils were killed; maimed, robbed
and rendered homeless are no longer isolated episodes. They are
intentional act of crime against humanity that encouraged the Tamils to
take up the arms to fight for their freedom. In fact, Black July" is the
start of full-scale armed struggle between the Tamil minority and the
Sinhalese majority.

The black July was officially unleashed by the decision taken at the
highest political level namely by the then president J. R. to "teach" a
lesson to the minority Tamils. It was carried out by his hard-line and
rightwing ministers such as Cyril Mathew and the local thugs who were
aligned to the ruling party. This is the way the terrorism was introduced
to the Tamils. The Tamils were taught violence by the Sri Lankan
government. Now, the Tamils do not have any other choice other than using
the State Terrorism to over power the Sate Terrorism to regain the freedom
for the Tamils.

The Tamils are an ancient people with a history dating back to at least
2,500 years. The Tamil language, the lingua Franco of the Tamils, is one
of the five oldest living languages of the world. The Tamil classical
literature, popularly called the Sangam (Academy) literature (1st -4th
Century AD) is a collection of poems of lasting quality and artistic
merit. They reflect faithfully the high level of civilization and literary
attainments of the ancient Tamils.

The Jaffna Kingdom was ruled as a separate polity both by the Portuguese
presentation. This demand came to be known as 50-50 envisaged allocating
50% of the parliamentary seats to the Sinhalese and the balance 50% to the
Tamils, Muslims, Burgers and other minority groups. This was rejected by
the Soulbury Commission, which curtailed the legislative power of
Parliament to "make laws for the peace, order and good government of the
island". The then constitution provided that no such law should impose any
disabilities, or confer any advantages, on members of any one community
only.

Freedom Call Should Continue to the Finish


The genocidal operation planned and executed by the Sinhala government was
the result of actions of a Sinhala -Buddhist majority which regarded the
island as the exclusive home of Sinhala Buddhism and the Tamils as
invaders from Tamil Nadu in South India. They proclaimed, "The history of
Sri Lanka is the history of the Sinhalese race. Thus, the Sinhalese
encouraged the Tamils to divide from them. They treated the Tamils as a
threat to them. Thus, the Sinhalese never considered the Tamils as equal
within a pluralistic Sri Lankan community and this is the case now too.
Ethnologically, the Sinhalese and Tamils are unique races and there are no
commonalities among them. They cannot live within a nation as a united
group. After all, the Sinhalese have asked the Tamils to go back to India.

This is just one example of what has become the battle cry of the
Sinhala-Buddhists sole and exclusive claim to the whole of Ceylon. The
issues of the Tamils were nurtured, refined and exploited by successive
Sinhalese political leaders who sought to perpetuate their rule over the
Tamils. Thus, Sinhalese devastated the land, destroyed ancient temples,
burnt valuable libraries, and nearly annihilated the historic Tamil race.
The idea that Tamils freedom must be restored and continued does not
warrant further justification. The freedom fight, either by violent or
non-violent means, should be based on nation-state model. Our struggle is
primarily an ethnic and political struggle. The Tamils should not continue
to talk with the Sinhalese who do not recognise the homeland and the
self-determination of Tamils. Please, no more talk with the Sinhalese.

The continuation of the freedom fight without talk in talking peace is the
one and only method for the restoration of Tamil freedom. Therefore, the
people of Tamil homeland, both in and outside, must make efforts and learn
to believe in our freedom, as indeed we must internalise the habit of
freedom lobbying. It will be too much for the faint-hearted and too
incomprehensible for those with no firm appreciation for Tamils and their
rights.

Many self-fish minded people assume that Tamils follow the non-violent
method because Sri Lankas enormous population, international support and
military strength leave no other choices for us. These people believe that
we should accept the Sri Lankan government and its empty promises.
Certainly, believing the Sinhalese and their government will lead to a
complete demise of the Tamil humanity. The Tamil have gone through
non-violent path and failed time and time after in the past 58 years.
Tamils cannot have genuine peace talk with the Sinhalese. Any involvement
in a random and not so serious peace talks will be a serious mistake on
the part of Tamils. Whether one has confidence in the freedom fight
whereby virtue results in happiness - or whether one views the situation
from a purely political standpoint, the philosophical understanding here
is that one cannot achieve wholesome goals if one does not rely on
wholesome methods. Even if peace talk could guarantee us freedom with
justice tomorrow, we must firmly continue the freedom fight until we feel
freedom in our hearts and minds. Until we can get such a guarantee, our
freedom fight will be a powerful instrument for achieving our goal  the
homeland and self determination for Tamils.


Brighter July is Just Nearing


Our freedom fight so far shows how our fighters struggled for the past 23
years to bring things together  our homeland, our economic development as
well as our culture, religion and political institutions. Confronted with
Sri Lankan government genocidal intent and actions, including the actions
of the international community with their bias and aggressive political
policies, and in the absence of any acceptable solutions to our
grievances, Tamils have no other option but to mobilize and face the
"aggressor" head-on.

All Tamils have a universal responsibility to fulfil the demand for
freedom of Tamils. It is a duty that we all incur simply by the fact of
our birth as Tamils. If we do not live up to that birth-duty, then we are
not worthy of being Tamils and we are unable to act in a way that does
justice to our heritage. Not only is there nothing ruder and base than
being unable to live up to one's birth-duty, even from a worldly point of
view, one scarcely merits the life of humanity that one enjoys.

Truth is on Our Side and It Will Win Us


Our homeland and cultural tradition were preserved and enhanced over
thousands of years by the Tamils of early generations, who considered
these more precious than their own lives. In modern times, these
traditions have a close bearing on the well-being of the entire humanity.
If we allow the Sri Lankan government and Sinhalese to destroy this Tamil
tradition, it will be a great loss not only to the Tamils in Sri Lanka,
but also to the Tamil humanity as a whole in the world.

Having ascertained this reality, it should be said that the Tamil heritage
cannot be protected unless we have complete freedom and unless equal
parity and power balance is maintained by preventing the destruction of
Tamil homeland. Therefore, the ultimate goal is not just political freedom
for Tamils. Rather, our ultimate goal is the preservation, maintenance and
development of the sublime cultural traditions of the Tamil nation.
However, without proper means and favourable conditions, it is not
possible for us to fulfil this responsibility. We must therefore first
undertake the liberating Tamil homeland immediately. Unlike the freedom
struggles of other peoples in other countries, our struggle must continue
with a sense of urgency, as we cannot wait for yet another generation for
our freedom. We must plan and revitalise the freedom fight with the
popular people support in order to achieve a concrete result no later than
2010. We must recognize that truth is on our side and, with this
conviction; we must engage ourselves in a search for a brighter July ever.

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